10/29/2021: Final Day at Dreams Tulum

The start of our final day

What a way to start our final Dreams Tulum day. It was a spectacular sunrise. I’ll bore you with several pictures. Every minute the sunrise was increasingly wonderful.

Sunrise is at about 6:40 a.m. here and it was amazing how many women were up with cameras at the ready to take in the gorgeous sunrise. I thought the one we saw earlier in the week was amazing, but today’s was just spectacular. I guess after all that lightening last night Mother Nature didn’t want the night sky to hold anything over the morning sky.

Today is another lovely day at the resort. We’ve had great weather, albeit very, very hot and humid. I don’t do too well in the heat so I’ve been a bit uncomfortable. And now my cold is in full force. But the great news is that my COVID test was negative. What a great relief that is! So, I’m just sick, but not with COVID. I will need to take extra precautions so I don’t give anyone my cold.

Walking around the resort today we saw some workers cutting down huge bunches of coconuts. Boy did they fall hard! I was surprised they didn’t have the work area roped off. The palm was very close to the main walkway. I was concerned about the guys on the ground watching the worker up in the tree. A woman walking by asked a worker to please cut the top off a coconut so she could enjoy the milk He gladly did that and off she went with a very large coconut.

I walked around and took a few more photos. This really is a very lovely resort.

We spent a couple of hours at the quiet pool this afternoon. It’s fun to move around in the water and eavesdrop on people’s conversations. Christine tries to lap swim, but finds that too many people get in her way. She doesn’t do any backstroke or else she’d crash into people, so she just sticks with breaststroke and crawl. We both read a little and then headed back to the room to start packing.

Olivia works with the resort on logistics. As you might imagine, getting 750 women COVID tested, checked out, and in shuttle buses to the airport at the appropriate time is no small feat. They created a big list of everyone’s flight information and organized shuttle buses in batches that are 4 hours before one’s flight. Our flight out of Cancun is at 11:20 a.m. so we’re on the 7:00 a.m. shuttle. They’ll pick up our luggage from our room 90 minutes prior to our shuttle, so it will be an early morning.

What’s really funny is that my brother Grant and his partner Bob are arriving in Cancun on Saturday at 10:15 a.m. for a week of guy fun at a new resort up the road from where we are. Of course, we didn’t plan it this way, it just worked out that way. I’ll keep my eyes peeled just in case we do see Grant and Bob across the airport terminal.

We’re off to Sarasota, Florida by way of Atlanta where we’ll be staying with our good friend, Deeny. I’ll fill you in on how Christine knows Deeny once we settle in with Deeny in Venice, FL.

Until the next post, thanks for the comments some of you are making. We really appreciate hearing from you.

10/28/2021: Another Relaxing Day

After our snorkeling adventure yesterday, today was another rest and relax day. This is such a beautiful resort so we want to enjoy it as much as possible. One thing on our schedule today was to attend a talk by the founder and president of Olivia. We went to another of her sessions earlier in the week. The big draw for attending her talks is that she gives away 2-for-1 certificates for Olivia trips, meaning two people go for the price of one. It’s a sweet deal for sure because these Olivia trips are not cheap so half off is a deal. We didn’t win any of the trips, but we did sign up for another trip going a year from now. It departs from Athens and has stops in Cyprus, the Greek Isles and Israel. After disembarking back in Athens we’ll hopefully fly back to Israel to visit Christine’s college roommate, Carol, who has lived on a kibbutz in Israel since 1968. We had already signed up for a riverboat cruise from Amsterdam to Switzerland scheduled for April, 2022. We’ll tack on to that trip a visit to Rome, the Amalfi coast and a stay in Malta. Finally, retirement is allowing us to do the traveling we’ve always wanted to do.

So not much else activity-wise to report on so I’ll just adds some more photos from around the resort.

This guy lives in a hole right near the entrance to our building. We’ve seen him every morning. The iguanas are all over the place and often are in the bushes bordering the walkways. It gets your attention when one jumps out of the bushes!

Iguana (big one)

One fun thing we always try to do on these Olivia trips is play ping pong. It’s easier to play at a resort than on a cruise ship, although the sea breeze today was quite strong so the ball flew all over. At least we didn’t having a ship listing to and fro to contend with.

Here’s what goes on at the noisy pool all day long.

This is what we prefer.

The most important thing we did today was get our COVID test, which we’ll need to get back into the U.S. We were originally scheduled to test Friday morning, but I got worried that our test results wouldn’t be back before we leave very early Saturday morning, so we crashed the line at the testing place this afternoon. We got swabbed and our results will be ready 7:00 a.m. Friday morning. I am a little nervous about the test result for me because I have a very sore throat, a plugged up ear and blocked sinus on the left. I think it’s just a cold starting, but I’m concerned that whatever is going on might cause the COVID test to not be negative. I’m not really worried about having COVID, just that whatever I have will muck up the test. I’ll know in the morning.

After dinner we strolled around the vacated pool and noticed lightening in the distance. We sat on some loungers to watch the incredible light show occurring all around the resort to the west. The storm wasn’t very close but the lightening was intense. We didn’t hear the thunder but I’m sure it was pretty violent wherever the storm was. It never rained in our area until sometime in the night.

So another day in paradise comes to an end. Can’t believe that the week is nearly over. Time flies when you’re having fun!

10/27/2021: Akumal and Yal-Ku

In 2005 Christine and I spent some time in Akumal which is about 10 miles north of Dreams Tulum. We had a very wonderful time there where we stayed in a friend of a friend’s apartment right on the beach. This area is well-known for its tortugas, or green sea turtles. When we were in Akumal we could sit on our third floor balcony and watch the turtles in Half Moon Bay. When we swam in the bay the turtles were rather curious of us and would swim very close so we had quite an experience. The other draw of Akumal was a wonderful, clear lagoon where we had great snorkeling, so we decided to try to visit that lagoon again since we schlepped our snorkeling gear, fins and all, with us to Tulum. When we were here in 2005, our friend showed us a way to get to the lagoon without having to pay the admission fee and I think we snorkeled every morning we were in Akumal. It was a great snorkeling experience which we hoped to recreate.

I studied the map and figured out that the lagoon was called Yal-Ku and that there is somewhat of a nature preserve around the lagoon. The website for the lagoon says this: Yal-Ku is one of the Caribbean corners with which you will surely be surprised on your way. In this underground freshwater outlet to the open sea, you will enjoy incredible views. Discover among colorful fish one of the most beautiful landscapes of this paradisaical coast of the Mexican southeast. While you swim in these irresistible crystalline waters, you will enjoy the life hidden by the roots of the mangroves, the birds in their habitat and a great variety of fish, in a place where two ecosystems merge where fauna and flora coexist between the salty and the sweet, two very different worlds.

Yal-Ku in Akumal

We arranged for a taxi from Dreams Tulum to Yal-Ku. It was a 15-minute drive and I’m glad the driver knew where we were going because it seemed difficult to find. One thing that gave us happiness is we drove right past the building where we stayed, so I knew we were in the right vicinity.

Where we stayed in 2005

We arrived at Yal-Ku just before opening time. I had read that the earlier the better because the lagoon gets crowded during the day as tour groups arrive. We checked in, stowed our stuff in a locker, and headed down to the lagoon. I recognized immediately where we had trespassed across private property in 2005 to get into the lagoon. There’s a big fence there now. But seeing the lagoon was like seeing an old friend.

Yal-Ku lagoon

The lagoon remains crystal clear. Mangroves line the lagoon and great mounds of coral and rock are sprinkled through the lagoon. About a half-mile from the entry point (the wooden platforms in the right of the photo above) you’ll get to the entrance of the lagoon to the sea. We snorkeled the length of the lagoon staying close to the edges because that’s where you see the most fish. And there is quite an array of tropical fish – parrot fishes, angelfishes, damsel fishes, butterfly fishes, surgeon fishes, etc. I wish our friend Eve had been with us to identify everything we saw. I also wish I had purchased an underwater camera. You could see many fish from shore standing a the lagoon’s edge, but by the time you found the fish in the view finder, they were gone. My one photo of a fish is below. Look closely and you’ll see a lovely blue fish with a yellow spot on the tail in the middle of the photo.

We saw lots of these fish while snorkeling

We snorkeled for two hours and thoroughly enjoyed every minute in spite of the large number of folks who were there. But after two hours we were both quite tired and ready to stop.

After we showered and changed, we walked back down to the lagoon to take some photos.

We decided to walk to the place we had stayed and see the significant development along Half Moon Bay. For a while we enjoyed walking and looking at things. We didn’t recognize much, but some of the newer buildings were fun to look at as they were very colorful and festive.

We passed by a restaurant and decided we needed to get out of the hot sun, so we went into La Buena Vida and were seated in a wonderful shady spot right on the edge of the sea. We had chicken quesadillas with guacamole and el pico de gallo – very yummy! It certainly is la buena vida, the good life.

After lunch we thought we would walk into the little village of Akumal and see what we remembered. Unfortunately, we were a lot farther from the village than we thought. It was incredibly hot, sunny with little shade, and we we carrying rather heavy packs. Christine was not too happy with me and I kept say, “just a little farther,” thinking we’d see a shop where we could ask for someone to call us a taxi. We reached a checkpoint that had a guard and we asked him if he could call us a taxi, which he gladly did. Within about 5 minutes a taxi arrived and took us back to Dreams Tulum. Once back in our room Christine flopped down on the bed and fell sound asleep.

Our own little excursion today to Akumal and Yal-Ku was really great and we’re so happy that we did it. Some of the resort snorkeling excursions were either canceled this week due to rough weather (lots of wind here) or the snorkeling was awful due to churned up water. So our own excursion to crystal clear, calm Yal-Ku was terrific. And now I’m happy that we did schlep our gear and fins, even though I thought Christine was nuts to pack fins.

10/25-26/2021: Relaxing and Having Fun

Per usual, resorts and cruises provide you with the opportunity to sign-up for area excursions. Dreams Tulum is no different, but we decided that we wanted to just kick back, relax, and enjoy the resort. We visited the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum in the past, so there wasn’t a reason to do that again. I had wanted to visit a cenote, but that excursions included pulling oneself through caves underwater via a rope and I didn’t think Christine would like that. We do have our own little private excursion planned for another day, but more on that later. So we are just resting and taking in the resort.

We did get up to watch a sunrise, which was really nice.

Beginning a new day
Wonderful sunrise

We have taken beach walks, which are always nice. I will tell you, though, that plastic is taking over our world. Plastic washing in from the sea is everywhere. The resort does a great job cleaning its beach every morning, but once beyond the resort boundary, plastic debris is everywhere. It’s so sad to see.

As you might expect, Olivia puts on lots of activities for active women. I got a kick out of seeing the sunrise yoga class over on the sunrise terrace. The shot I took was during downward facing dog, which was quite funny.

Sunrise yoga

And lots of volleyball, both on the beach and in the pool.

Beach volleyball

But we didn’t partake; rather, we found nice loungers in the shade and enjoyed the beach.

Nice place to relax

Here came a guy advertising a talk on tortugas, the green sea turtles that nest in the area. Unfortunately, most of the women weren’t inspired to attend the talk after seeing Mr. Turtle.

Turtle coming our way

One of the planned Olivia activities during this time of year is a Halloween dance. And yes, lots of women pack costumes. I can just imagine what TSA or custom agents think when they see some of the costumes packed in luggage. There is a nightly show performed by an Olivia talent (comedians or musicians), but after the show last night was a costume parade and dance. It was fun to see what creative things people came up with for costumes. I’ll show just a couple that are safe as many were quite risque or naughty.

We didn’t stick around too long after the parade. Us old-timers don’t dance the night away any longer. But I will tell you that Christine and I attended a dance lesson session and learned some Latin and Brazilian steps. I’m a terrible dancer but I outlasted Christine during the class. It’s been so hot and humid here that doing anything outside takes a toll, and Latin dancing outside did a number on us. We had a good excuse to leave the Halloween party early.

10/24-25/2021: Dreams Tulum Resort & Spa

The Dreams Tulum Resort has space for about 750 people and this Olivia tour has filled the entire resort, which makes everything so much fun. Christine really wanted to come on this particular Olivia trip (our 9th) because she is connected to a group calling themselves the 12-step Lifeboat group. Christine has been attending weekly meetings of the group via Zoom and many of the participants were coming on the trip. The group is meeting twice a day while here and I join the group for a meal after the meetings. It’s nice to have been adopted by the group; such interesting women from all over the country.

While Christine is in a meeting, I get to wander around the resort and explore.

Reminds me of the White House

The resort is 44 acres of coastline, gardens, and jungle. There are 432 guest rooms spread around the property and some of them are really unique, like the garden swim out rooms that are rather private and offer your own pool right off your terrace.

Other areas are very quiet as they look out onto very nicely manicured garden courtyards.

Beautiful fountains with lush surroundings

There are two pools, an activities pool and a quiet pool. Of course the activities pool, aka the noisy pool, has a swim-up bar and it’s where all the pool games are played, of which there are many throughout the day. The quiet pool is good for lap swimming and just hanging out. The only problem with the quiet pool is that it is very shallow at one end and if one is not careful, you’ll skin your knees while swimming.

There are well-marked walking trails with lots of signage about the flora and fauna, kind of like a nature preserve. I’ve really enjoyed strolling along looking at all the beautiful sights and enjoying the sounds. The birds are amazing to hear, but all the birds and critters are elusive, except for the black, spiney-tailed iguanas that sit around on the walking paths and aren’t bothered at all by humans. And there are cats/kittens galore skulking around.

A wonderful thing about Mexico is the beautiful and very colorful tile. There is tile everywhere. I’d love to learn something about some of the crazy interesting figures that are depicted. There’s this really cool mural on one of the building sides that is full of great figures and I’m sure it’s telling a story.

Mural in tile

Here are some other tiles that adorn the walls around the resort.

So that’s a little bit about the resort. This is a beautiful place and we’re having a great time.

10/22-23/2021: In the Air Again!

After a very long time of not traveling, Christine and I are heading to our first trip away since the start of the pandemic. We had returned from our Australian adventure at the very end of February, 2020, just before countries were shutting down. We’ve had two of our Olivia trips cancelled since then and we’ve only been to Vermont once a few months ago to visit Eve. So this trip to Tulum, Mexico has been eagerly awaited. And now we’re here at the Dreams Tulum Resort and Spa.

Ready, set, GO!

We flew from Binghamton to Detroit. Since Delta has reduced to only one flight in and out of the Binghamton airport that departs at 2:19 pm, unless you have a late-in-the-day connection, you have to spend the night in Detroit, which we did.

Saturday morning, October 23, we flew from Detroit to Cancun and then we were bused to the Dreams Tulum Resort, which is about 90 minutes south of Cancun. Olivia Travel does a bang up job of organizing everything and our transfer to the resort went smoothly. Upon our arrival, the first thing we had to do was get a rapid COVID test. We had had a test done on Thursday before departing because I thought Mexico had a requirement for testing prior to entering, but I was wrong about that. But with that test negative, we were confident that our arrival test would be negative, and it was. We had also gotten our vaccine booster shot a couple of weeks ago, which we had wanted to do before traveling, so the CDC guidelines about Pfizer boosters came just in the nick of time. What didn’t go smoothly was check-in. After standing in a long line to register, we learned that our room was not ready, which it was supposed to be because we arrived after the 3:00 p.m. check-in time. We were told to go enjoy the resort for an hour and come back to the desk. That’s what we did. We found the Seaside Grill and had a late lunch/early dinner which was tasty (tacos) and in a beautiful setting.

View from the Seaside Grill

After about 90 minutes we walked back up to the registration area to check our room availability. I was disappointed that I had to stand in another long line along with women who hadn’t registered yet. I thought they would have a better process for already registered folks who just needed a room key, but no. I waited about 30 minutes to finally get to the front of the line to pick up our room keys.

We were quite happy to get to our room because by now we were hot, tired, and ready to plop down. Our room is really great! It’s what is called a junior suite with a small, separate sitting area and a balcony. We have a wonderful view and we’re happy with the accommodations.

What we see from our room

We got ourselves all settled into our room and found that we were so tired that we actually called it a night at about 7:30 pm. But now we’re ready to start our vacation tomorrow and will be well-rested.

In the next post, I’ll tour you around the resort, which is really lovely.